How to Choose the Perfect Turkey

Get ready for Thanksgiving with these essential turkey tips

How to Choose the Perfect TurkeyGet ready for Thanksgiving with these essential turkey tips

You may feel overwhelmed by Thanksgiving questions. Who's bringing the green beans? Will anyone notice if I use canned gravy? Is the waistband of these pants elastic enough?

We can clear up at least one for you: What kind of turkey to get. Here’s what resident turkey expert (turkologist?) Jean Nick, who raises heritage birds on her farm in Pennsylvania, has to say about giving your family the bird this Thanksgiving:

When you’re looking:

-Free-range is almost meaningless. All it takes to earn this label is for poultry to have access to the outdoors. The word to look for is pasture-raised. These turkeys have spent actual time outside, running around and flapping their wings, rather than guzzling feed in a tiny cage.

- Heritage is to turkey as purebred is to canine. These birds have been bred from the same carefully watched bloodline since before the 1940s. Which means they haven't been bred purposely to be fat or to have an unnatural proportion of breast meat, like many store-bought birds. Fans (like Nick) say they are more flavorful (and more expensive) because of it.

-Heritage birds can be found at your local farmers' market or via localharvest.org, a nation-wide resource for organic products, including poultry.

When you’re cooking:

-Consider brining (a brine is basically a saltwater bath) a special bird before cooking it. Pasture-raised turkeys haven't been injected with saline or other liquids, so a brine could help them reach peak juiciness.

-Be prepared for a pasture-raised bird's cook time to be faster than you're used to, due to a smaller average size and the aforementioned lack of artificially-added juices. So keep a close eye on your thermometer.

-If you go with a heritage bird, don't feel bad about eating a rare species. "It seems counterintuitive," says Nick, "but by buying and eating one, you're supporting the bloodline." If there's demand, farmers will continue to raise the birds. If not, they could die out. And where's the Thanksgiving spirit in that?